Hannibal Lecter Was Onto Something....Sort Of!

I can't believe that I'm about to say this but I LOVE PATE! I didn't realise that I loved pate until recently after I decided to make some after seeing a recipe in a library book. As most of you know, I've been on a journey of eating a lot more nutritiously this year and one thing I'd been hearing a lot about was the benefits of eating offal. Liver in particular is extremely high in vitamin A.

It took a while for me to find something from the "offal range" that I was prepared to have a go at. I'm not really keen on the idea of heating heart, livers or brains (I'm no Hannibal Lecter) but pate is one of those things that whilst made from livers, it's cooked, chopped and flavoured within in inch of it's life thus not resembling it's original form.

To start with, I picked up some good quality chicken livers from a local butcher, defrosted some buttermilk which I'd saved from the bi-product of making butter and got to work.

 Ingredients:

500g Chicken Livers
Buttermilk/milk for soaking
100g unsalted butter
1 small onion chopped finely
2 celery stalks chopped finely
1-2 cloves garlic
1-2 tbs thyme and/or sage chopped finely
Salt and pepper to taste

1 - Trim the chicken livers so you're only left with the soft, brightly coloured bits. Put the chopped liver in a bowl with the milk to soak for at least 2 hours (this helps to remove any bitterness).
2 - Heat the butter in a frypan. Sauté the onion, garlic and celery for 5 minutes. Add livers and herbs and cook until the livers are cooked through but still a bit pink in the middle (if you over cook the livers they can taste a bit gritty).
3 - Place all the ingredients into a food processor until smooth. Season. Pour into a couple containers. Freeze some and eat the rest. Consume within 3 days.

I know it doesn't look awesome but it really does taste great. Proof of this is that my kids LOVE the stuff too (and they're fairly picky eaters). Kai loves it so much he will lick it off his rice cakes and hand the biscuit back to be reloaded!

You can eat pate with a cheese plate, on toast, with veggie sticks or on rice cakes (like we do). Whatever you chose to do, enjoy in moderation. This stuff is so full of nutrition that you don't need to consume a lot of it within one sitting to reap the benefits. I dare you to give it a go!